Family members of former South African president Nelson Mandela are seeking criminal charges against his grandson in a dispute over a family burial ground.

Mr Mandela's family is fighting a court battle over the burial sites of three of his children.

Overnight, the family sought charges of grave tampering against Mr Mandela's grandson Mandla, who allegedly relocated the graves near his homestead more than a decade ago without the rest of the family's consent.

Other relatives have obtained a court order for the remains to be re-buried in Mr Mandela's home village of Qunu.

Mandla is fighting a court order to return the remains to Qunu, where Mr Mandela's parents are also interred.

He had previously argued that Mr Mandela should be buried at his rural birthplace, Mvezo.

The family lawyers in court argued that the remains be returned to Qunu by 3pm (local time) on Wednesday.

The case is expected to resume in the Eastern Cape High Court later today, when a final ruling is expected.

The disputed remains were of Mr Mandela's eldest son Thembekile who died in 1969, his nine-month-old infant Makaziwe who passed away in 1948, and Mr Mandla's father, Magkatho, who died in 2005.

Mandla's spokesman Freddy Pilusa told AFP that he "has no issues with the repatriation of any of those remains".

"But obviously it has to be done by those people who have the authority to do so," he added.

"Those things would have been decided in the family. But now they're not in the family. They're in the court."

South African newspaper The Sunday Times has reported that Mandela clan elders fear their ancestors have "cursed" the family because of the removal of the graves.

"Mandela's soul is not at peace. The ancestors will only be appeased once the remains of the Mandela family are reburied in Qunu. Only then will Tata (father) be released," it quoted an unnamed local chief as saying.